The historic Newman Church Cemetery has a fine area, with a large central marker, and  railing, enclosing several Bucklin graves. Click on the photo to enlarge and enjoy this photo of this impressive area of the cemetery. (Several Bucklin graves of the 1700's are nearby, but outside this railed area.  Other Bucklin graves from the 1700's are scattered elsewhere in the cemetery. )

One of the sides of this central marker has a plaque for Capt. John Bucklin, a man of some substance of his day, and his family.

CAPT. JOHN⁶ BUCKLIN, 2nd , CAPT. JOHN 1st  ⁵, JOSEPH⁴, JOSEPH³, WILLIAM², JOHN¹ BUCKLAND) was born 12 Feb 1732/33 in Rehoboth, MA^1,2, and died 02 Apr 1790^3,4. He married EMIMA ECK ^5,6 05 Jan 1764 in Rehoboth, MA^7,8, daughter of THOMAS P ECK and DELIVERANCE . She was born 19 May 1744^9,10,11,12, and died 1812^13,14.  A separate bronze plaque as a gravestone reads: "In Memory of Capt. John Bucklen [sic] who departed this Life, the 2nd of April, 1790 in the 58th year of his Age."

John was a captain of the Rehoboth Minute Company in 1774. This was the forerunner of the Revolutionary Town Militia. Originally chartered in 1774 by the town of Rehoboth as a town Militia unit, the unit was comprised of mixed Militia and Minutemen.  The "Minute Men" were men specially charged with being ready to march on "a minute's notice" for the defense of the town.

Recreated Rehoboth Minute Company marches in Gaspee Days Celebrations.

By 1775 the Rehoboth Militia was a force of 210 persons. At that time there were under the command of Capt. John Daggett of Attleboro and Col. Timothy Walker of Rehoboth. On April 9, 1975, ten days before the confrontation between the British and American forces at Concord and Lexington, the unit was sent to Freetown MA. Without a shot being fired, the Rehoboth militia seized 40 stands of British arms, munitions, and accoutrements.  We assume that Capt John Bucklin was among those persons.  Is it little wonder that the English army commander was marching to Concord and Lexington to seize the powder and arms of the Massachusetts Militia and Minutemen in those towns!

On the Concord and Lexington alarm,  the Rehoboth Company was dispatched to the Roxbury and Dorchester area of Boston, where as part of the Massachusetts the troops were absorbed into Washington's Continental forces during the American army's reorganization in 1776 at the Boston camp. Many members of the original unit went on to serve with Gen. George Washington's Continental forces under the Mass. 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, 16th, and 13th Continental Regiments later in the war. Colonel Thomas Carpenter took over the remaining town Militia in 1776. Under Carpenter, the unit took part in battles such as the battle of White Plains, the Battle of Rhode Island, the battle at Yonkers, NY, and the battle of Long Island. By the end of the war, John was a Capt. in the American Revolutionary Army

The Rehoboth Minutemen and Militia was an active defense system for the town until April 24, 1840, at which time it was disbanded by General Order.

The descendants of Capt. John Bucklin included may important figures of the next century, like Thomas Peck Bucklin, (the Thomas P. Bucklin in the plaque shown above) one of the richest of the persons owning companies of clipper ships.  We believe that whoever erected this plaque for some reason did not include all of the children of Capt. John Bucklin, instead opting for including the children of George and Hannah.  The central stone column has four equal size bronze plaques on it, commemorating different persons, so considerations of plaque size may be one reason for the option chosen.

Outside this railed area are many other Bucklin graves.  Some are immediately close by.  Others are scattered throughout this rather large and historic cemetery.

We certainly hope that members of the Society will spend some time taking photos of the existing Bucklin graves, before they disappear.  For example, here on the left is a gravestone of a Mehitabel who was a wife of an Isaac Bucklin.  We still have not identified her, or to which of the many Isaac Bucklins she was married.  Notice how in June of 2001 the stone was falling apart.  It will not be long before the pieces will be gone!

And here on the right is a gravestone of a "Mary, wife of Isaac Bucklin" that has fallen over years ago.  It lays flat on the ground, and we saw only a corner sticking out of the ground, near but outside the Bucklin railed area.  By scraping back the dirt with our hands we saw what we could photograph.  Probably in a year or so the dirt will recover it.  The only Mary we know of in the appropriate time frame married to an Isaac is Mary Marsh, who died 06 Mar 1727/28 in Rehoboth, as the wife of an Isaac Bucklin who did not died until 1758

Read More about the Newman Cemetery

Return to Top Graves page